25. Support Resources — FreeNAS®11.1-U4 User Guide Table of Contents

# 25. Support Resources

FreeNAS® has a large installation base and an active user community. This means that many usage questions have already been answered and the details are available on the Internet. If you get stuck using FreeNAS®, spend a few moments searching the Internet for the word FreeNAS with some keywords that describe the error message or the function you are trying to implement.

The rest of this section discusses the following resources which are available to FreeNAS® users:

- Website and Social Media
- Forums
- IRC
- Videos
- Professional Support

## 25.1. Website and Social Media

The FreeNAS® website contains links to all of the available documentation, support, and social media resources. Major announcements are also posted to the main page.

Users are welcome to network on the FreeNAS® social media sites:

- LinkedIn
- Google+
- Facebook FreeNAS Community
- Facebook FreeNAS Consortium (please request to be added)
- Twitter

## 25.2. Forums

The FreeNAS Forums are an active online resource where people can ask questions, receive help, and share findings with other FreeNAS® users. New users are encouraged to post a brief message about themselves and how they use or are considering using FreeNAS® in the Introductions forum.

The Resources section contains categorized, user-contributed guides on many aspects of building and using FreeNAS® systems.

Language-specific categories are available under International, allowing FreeNAS® users to interact with each other in their native language:

- Chinese
- Dutch - Nederlands
- French - Francais
- German - Deutsch
- Italian - Italiano
- Portuguese - Português
- Romanian - Română
- Russian - Русский
- Spanish - Español
- Swedish - Svenske
- Turkish - Türkçe

To join the forums, create an account with the Sign Up Now! link.

Before asking a question on the forum, check the Resources to see if the information is already there. Then see the Forum Rules for guidelines on posting your hardware information and how to ask questions that will get a response.

## 25.3. IRC

To ask a question in real time, you can use the #freenas channel on IRC Freenode. Depending on the time of day and your time zone, FreeNAS® developers or other users may be available to provide assistance. If no one answers right away, remain on the channel, as other users tend to read the channel history to answer questions as time permits.

Typically, an IRC client is used to access the #freenas IRC channel. Alternately, use webchat from a web browser.

To get the most out of the IRC channel, keep these points in mind:

- Do not ask “can anyone help me?”. Just ask the question. If someone knows the answer, they will try to help.
- Do not ask a question and then leave. Users who know the answer cannot help you if you disappear.
- Do not take it personally if no one answers or demand that someone answers your question. Maybe no one who knows the answer is available, maybe your question is really difficult, or maybe it is a question that has already been answered many times in the other support resources. Try asking again in a few hours or research the other resources to see if you have missed anything.
- Do not post error messages in the channel as the IRC software will probably kick you out. Instead, use a pasting service such as pastebin and paste the resulting URL into the IRC discussion.

## 25.4. Videos

A series of instructional videos are available for FreeNAS®:

- Install Murmur (Mumble server) on FreeNAS/FreeBSD
- FreeNAS® 9.10 - Certificate Authority & SSL Certificates
- How to Update FreeNAS® 9.10
- FreeNAS® 9.10 LAGG & VLAN Overview
- FreeNAS 9.10 and Samba (SMB) Permissions
- FreeNAS® 11 - What’s New
- FreeNAS® 11 - How to Install

## 25.5. Professional Support

In addition to the freely available community resources, professional support may be available through iXsystem’s network of third-party consultants. Submit a support inquiry using the form at https://www.ixsystems.com/freenas-commercial-support/.